This book explores the global phenomenon of populism in relation to states' foreign policy, addressing questions such as: How do populists mold their foreign policies? Is there a ‘populist foreign policy’? What are the implications of the populist implementation of policies in the regional, interregional, and global arenas? To this end, the book brings together a diverse group of scholars who have already researched on populist foreign policies in specific countries, who contribute shared chapters that examine the drivers, patterns and effects of populist foreign policies within distinctive regions.
The empirical analysis will not only shed new light on patterns in the case studies under investigation; implications will be drawn for important theoretical questions which can be generalized to other cases, such as whether populists’ charismatic leadership style translates into distinctive international outcomes; the role of structure, domestic and international, in constraining or enabling populist foreign policy; and how ideas, related to identity, ideology, and emotions, impinge on their behaviour vis-a-vis other countries in the international system. Other important questions we are interested in providing answers to include whether populism is, as most scholars say, a thin ideology, or whether, as a small minority of dissenters sustain, it is a thick one; and whether populism in the realm of foreign policy reflects worsening authoritarian tendencies or rather the interests and wishes of most voters. The latter conclusion would contribute to the literature which discusses whether populism is a democratic “corrective” to international neoliberal trends of the last several decades or, conversely, a more radical, structural shift.
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This book explores the global phenomenon of populism in relation to states' foreign policy, addressing questions such as: How do populists mold their foreign policies? Is there a ‘populist foreign policy’? What are the implications of the populist implementation of policies in the regional, interregional, and global arenas? To this end, the book brings together a diverse group of scholars who have already researched on populist foreign policies in specific countries, who contribute shared chapters that examine the drivers, patterns and effects of populist foreign policies within distinctive regions.
The empirical analysis will not only shed new light on patterns in the case studies under investigation; implications will be drawn for important theoretical questions which can be generalized to other cases, such as whether populists’ charismatic leadership style translates into distinctive international outcomes; the role of structure, domestic and international, in constraining or enabling populist foreign policy; and how ideas, related to identity, ideology, and emotions, impinge on their behaviour vis-a-vis other countries in the international system. Other important questions we are interested in providing answers to include whether populism is, as most scholars say, a thin ideology, or whether, as a small minority of dissenters sustain, it is a thick one; and whether populism in the realm of foreign policy reflects worsening authoritarian tendencies or rather the interests and wishes of most voters. The latter conclusion would contribute to the literature which discusses whether populism is a democratic “corrective” to international neoliberal trends of the last several decades or, conversely, a more radical, structural shift.
Philip Giurlando is Assistant Professor of International Politics at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and adjunct instructor at Trent University. His two principal areas of research are the formation and consequences of inter-state hierarchies and populist foreign policy. On the latter subject, his most recent publication on the subject is “Populist Foreign Policy: The Case of Italy” in the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal.
Daniel F. Wajner is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Department of International Relations and the European Forum at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He has published academic articles in International Studies Quarterly, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Comparative Political Theory, Journal of International Relations and Development, Foreign Policy Analysis, Diplomacy and Statecraft, Regional and Federal Studies, and Latin American Research Review. His main areas of research and teaching are international legitimacy, regional cooperation, conflict resolution, and populist foreign policies, with a particular focus on their interaction in the realms of Middle Eastern, European, and Latin American politics.